Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin's daughter, was bombarded with calls and texts from boys after hackers stole her mobile phone number from her mother's email account.

Bristol Palin, the daughter of Sarah PalinPhoto: GETTY

By Our Foreign Staff

6:03PM BST 22 Apr 2010

Mrs Palin's daughter testified Wednesday that she was 17 and pregnant in 2008 when her mother Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account was invaded after the former Alaska governor was picked as the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Bristol said she worried when a bunch of boys called, claiming they were at her front door and wanted in.

"We live in the middle of nowhere in Alaska ... in the middle of the woods," Bristol said during the trial of a 22-year-old former college student accused of hacking the account.

The trial continues Thursday and could last more than a week. Sarah Palin also was subpoenaed to testify but it was unclear if and when she would.

Bristol said her number was included with a photo she snapped of her brother Trigg taking his first bite of solid food and emailed to her parents while they were away during the 2008 presidential campaign.

"I saw a screen shot on the TV," she said.

David Kernell was an economics major at the University of Tennessee when he was accused of hacking the account. He is on trial on charges of identity theft, wire fraud, intentionally accessing Mrs Palin's email account without authorization and obstructing an FBI investigation. If convicted, he could be sent to prison for up to 50 years.

Kernell has not been accused of the harassing calls, e-mails and text messages that Bristol and a former aide described to jurors.

Kernell's attorney Wade Davies claims the e-mail intrusion was just a prank and has attempted to show the account was accessible to other people, was sometimes used for political and official messages and was not just private.

Testimony with Tennessee ties was given by Sarah Palin's aide. Frank Bailey of Anchorage, Alaska, a former Palin campaign aide who also worked in her state administration, testified he set up the e-mail account for Palin just after she was picked to be the running mate of Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

Bailey said after being notified about someone breaking in Palin's e-mail in September 2008, he had to act quickly to block further intruders.